HHSAA considering using instant replay in football

Saint Louis quarterback Chevan Cordeiro scanned for a receiver downfield against Kahuku in the Open Division state final in 2017. Photo by Steven Erler/Special to the Star-Advertiser.

The Hawaii High School Athletic Association is considering the use of instant replay to help officials in the 2019 state football tournament.

Chris Chun, the HHSAA executive director, will be meeting with the National Federation of High School Associations football rules committee in January to discuss it and seek approval to use instant replay on an experimental basis.

According to Matt Sumstine, who is the coordinator of officials for the state tournament, five states use instant replay for football in some capacity and other states use it for other sports.

Sumstine is a proponent of using instant replay and has requested it for the last three years but did not get approval.
Matt Sumstine, the coordinator of officials for the Hawaii High School Athletic Association football state tournament, is a proponent of instant replay at the high school level. Courtesy Hawaii Football Officials Association.

“There’s going to be one call that is too tight to make on the field where the officials don’t have the right angle — that’s going to change a (state tournament) game,” Sumstine said.

“I’ve been the officials coordinator for the last seven years for the HHSAA and we’ve been very fortunate with really good calls made, really tight calls that could have made a difference that we got right. Why replay exists in the NFL and NCAA is because eventually somebody is not going to get the call right. For some, there doesn’t appear to be any urgency for replay in high school here because we’ve been getting it right.”

One part of the replay officials’ job is to call down to the field and offer advice if they feel the officials on the field have made an egregious error — whether it has to do with an actual replay of a play or not.”

Sumstine is aware of a game-changing scenario in a high school championship game on the mainland. As time expired, there was an illegal forward pass for a touchdown. The defensive team accepted the penalty to wipe the points off the board, but the offensive team mistakenly received another play and went on to score and win the game.

“The team was supposed to lose the down and the game was supposed to be over,” Sumstine said. “It was not caught on the field.”

If replay officials were in the booth, it would have provided another asset — a safety net, so to speak — in the effort to get the call correct.

“When will the urgency be big enough to have replay here?” Sumstine said. “We have the ability to use it in all Open Division state tournament games and all state championship games (all at Aloha Stadium, which has a sufficient amount of cameras).”

Sumstine has been part of the Junior Prep Sports’ Paradise Classic youth and high school all-star event that has used replay for a few years. Replay will also be used in the Polynesian Bowl high school all-star game in January.

Sumstine, who lives in Hawaii, is in the replay booth as part of an NFL officiating crew this fall.

“You get on a plane and you land,” he said about the frequent and sometimes long trips. “I see a lot of interesting things every time I watch football. I learn something every time I work a game.”

COMMENTS

Fan of Humble People
October 7, 2018 8:14 pm

Are potential pass intereference calls reviewable? Just asking because a missed PI call cost Punahou a chance to tie the game against St. Louis.

To da house
October 7, 2018 8:21 pm

How about fixing the open division playoff format first.
All games count in the open division.
Top 4 teams with the best record go to the open division playoffs regardless of OIA or ILH.
This way as a fan, we will hopefully get to see the best of the best competing for the championship based on their merits of their record and not because of just being in a certain league.

88
October 7, 2018 10:39 pm

How about banning the user anywaaays. Uso isn’t even from Kahuku and he is pretending.

Notes
October 7, 2018 11:22 pm

Yeah because when STL is up 72-0 we need to know if the disadvantaged OIA school got the first down or not.

How about getting rid of this ridiculous alliance so we dont have to see the recruited ILH schools beat up on the OIA every week. Send the ILH back to their own League!

808 sports fan
October 8, 2018 8:01 am

If they going install instant replay for football. What about a 30 sec shot clock for varsity basketball. Dont want to hear this excuse to hard to train people. Use refs to control the shot clock. Have 2 on the court and one sitting at the check in table working the shot clock.

Hammer
October 8, 2018 9:55 am

The OIA is worrying about replays they might want to start having a fair system maybe they should look at teams year by year if there young and they not that good let them go down and if the teams are good then bring them up like farrington they are young this year I no that people us crying about ILH is a lot better then the OIA schools mililani can beat st Louis or punahou if they play a sound game is it’s fair for the the ILH to play each other only have three teams

anywaaaays!!
October 8, 2018 10:10 am

Maybe if Hammer and the rest of the ILH Agenda wants a fair system, they can start by looking in the mirror with the recruiting and win at all costs for profit mentality that is destroying public school football

What if?
October 8, 2018 10:34 am

What is recruiting? If a football players is invited to attend a private with a good football program and the parents have to pay $1000/month for their son’s tuition to attend this private school, is that recruitment or is that choice? What if your son had this offer? Would you pay $1000/month?

anywaaaays!!
October 8, 2018 10:40 am

“If a football players is invited to attend a private with a good football program and the parents have to pay $1000/month for their son’s tuition to attend this private school, is that recruitment or is that choice? ”

What a dumb question,even from the ILH Agenda. A football factory fake school recruits a player by offering scholarship or financial aid, the player chooses to accept the recruiting offer. I thought all you ILH Agenda private “school” people supposed to have higher education level than us lowly Kahuku grads! HAHAHA RRFL!

Hammer
October 8, 2018 10:58 am

A cry baby you want to about being fair why when BYU and UTAH recruit players they play one year as a red shirt freshman then they go on there missions comeback and pick up where left as a red shirt freshman when they graduate there are 25years old or older that men playing against young men is that fair hell no the reason why nothing is said about it is because BYU and UATH us junk never make it to the top that’s bull shit who give them the pass to hold guys back 2to 3 years

StL Parent
October 8, 2018 11:01 am

Anywaaaays – sistah you lame…I hope u complain to the DOE about your issues…DOE get as much money to fund programs as the best budgeted ILH programs (Pun/KS/Iolani)…and I hope u get all bent when all your OIA kids go away for schools instead of go UH…

???
October 8, 2018 1:30 pm

@Hammer
Y R U Comparing HS football to College?
A 25 y/o is similar to a 20 y/o in strength and maturity! a 19 y/o and 15 y/o is a drastic difference in maturity & strength barely hitting puberty.
Any college can have 25 year olds it’s not just BYU & Utah You should know this as a coach/strength coach!

CynHyn
October 8, 2018 2:20 pm

Lol, hammer is comparing a religious missionary work, to a foreign country, as a way to beat the college football system. Yeah right. It’s a commitment to the word of God and a sacrifice. So much from a brotherhood fake.

Farney
October 8, 2018 3:20 pm

#8,what if. What if your son is the biggest meanest kid in “the housing” and the parents make $1500.a month? Let’s be truthful. Call a scholarship a scholarship, and it’s good for that kid, but yeah $$$$ is factor, always been.

Northshore
October 8, 2018 6:42 pm

@808 sports fan: Your suggestion is well taken. Rules have changed throughout the years especially basketball with the 30 seconds rule. The shot clock has made the game of basketball faster and exciting. There are high schools in Hawaii that are coached to play the stalling game when they are at a disadvantage in height and scoring or when a team is ahead in points with couple of minutes left in the game…Iolani was good at doing that for several years. It so boring to watch a stalling basketball game and it doesn’t show the true talent of a good basketball team. The state will come up with the excuse that it will cost too much to equip a shot clock in every high school basketball school gym. Hawaii is behind about having kids play by the shot clock compared to other school districts in the mainland. It’s not a priority and the game of stalling continues in Hawaii high school basketball while they are able to spend $millions to install artificial turfs on many high school football fields. Go figa!!

Notes
October 8, 2018 8:02 pm

Recruiting is fine for the ILH, just dont ack like you work harder then anyone else because the player next to you is an allstar which makes your job easier and you start looking like an all-star beating up on the disadvantaged OIA schools. In the OIA the player next to you is all-couch and you gotta play harder.

So a roster of 99 kids at STL is paying $1000 each a month. Thats 1.9 million reasons why Cal better change the rules in his favor, and recruit 10 samoans to win the title, or else gonna have a lot of pissed off parents.

Football GEEK
October 10, 2018 10:59 am

The HHSAA should fix one problem and one problem only, get the best teams in the state tournament.
It shows, #1 and #2 are both ILH and only one can go? Lol this is a joke. And to top it off, Kamehameha should be in that tournament lol. Bottom line, you make a super league, the top 6 go to the state tournament regarless of what you league you in. That only makes sense and its fair. Or better yet go back to prep bowl, the outter island schools are no longer affiliated with the D1 so why not go back to that. The whole set up is wrong, somebody needs to fix it. ITS JUST PLAIN WRONG.

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